Fundamentals of Alberta's WCB are good; need to be effective in holding employers accountable.

Fundamentals of Alberta's WCB are good; need to be effective in holding employers accountable.

All WCB are provincially run and I'm familiar with Alberta's. One of the main things workers don't realize is WCB only covers your work tasks; which should be listed and hazard assessed as required by the Canada Labour Code (and Alberta's) If you are doing a task not on that list; you don't get compensated. How is that fair? The employer is supposed to supply training, tools and PPE to get the work done safely. There are avenues for lowing premiums and active participation in worker safety through external audits is the only way employers should get any of their WCB premiums back. Audit observations should help improve worker training and safety across industries.

Where would that "extra" money go? There are a lot of pre-exisiting conditions that could need to be remedied to get a worker back; more timely intervention; more worker education available to small companies as part of their premiums. In Alberta, if a worker is injured through ignoring safety education and training, the worker can be fined. The only way that should happen is if the company can show documented continuous improvement in safety. Tracking software is expensive but helps everyone.

Alberta has a very good system. It's a legislated non-profit insurer. Premiums are low And yeah, top administrators should be paid less and bonuses based on better metrics - maybe near miss reporting rather than lost work rates.


http://albertapolitics.ca/2017/07/report-calling-big-changes-workers-compensation-alberta-step-toward-ending-wcbs-culture-denial/